


Red eyes, take warning

by 2fruity4u



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Drug Use, Gen, I mean ghost drugs, badger cereal, honestly badger cereal is a given with me but y'know, technically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:07:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26033152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/2fruity4u/pseuds/2fruity4u
Summary: One day Vlad Masters disappeared without a trace. No one really knew how or why. He just left.For Danny that was great, that is, until he was found again.
Comments: 30
Kudos: 97





	1. Chapter 1

Plasmius didn’t know how long he had been a ghost, and that didn’t bother him. His life was simple enough. He would arrive in a town, help set up, do his act, pack up, and move onto the next place. 

Once in a while he would be told to do something extra, rob a bank, hunt down another ghost, whatever it was he didn’t bother himself thinking about it too much. Actually, he didn’t bother thinking at all. The Orb would let him know what to do. It always did. 

Well… except for today. 

He had been sent ahead to set up the tents for the show tonight because he was the only one that could pass for human in daylight. 

A human stepped forward looking… odd. Plasmius wasn’t sure how he was odd, by all means he was no different than the other humans he regularly interacted with and yet… something just felt off about him. 

“Vlad? Is that really you? Is this where you’ve been all these years?” Asked the kid. He had blue eyes. There was something particularly wrong about the eyes. “Uh… fruitloop? Hello? Anyone home?” 

“I’m sorry, may I help you?” Plasmius asked, setting the bag he had on the ground. Usually people didn’t talk to him. Something told humans he wasn’t one of them and most didn’t stick around for more than passive observation. This kid was obviously not clueing in. 

“Uh… Yeah, I wanted to know where you’ve been for the past five years.” Danny said slowly. “Were you… like backpacking to find yourself or…?”

“I have been traveling, yes. All over. My name isn’t…” He paused, Plasmius wasn’t a name humans had. No one had ever asked his name in his human disguise. Even within the troupe no one ever talked to him except to issue a command. It was different. He wasn’t sure if that was a bad thing. “Never mind. I should get working. I have a lot to do.” He picked up the bag again and turned away but stopped after a few steps. “Stop by tonight if you want.” The Ringmaster always liked more sales, and that was Plasmius’ only motivation for letting the boy with blue eyes know. Not interest or curiosity, those things were not allowed. 

“Are… you camping here?” The boy asked. 

He took a moment to figure that one out. “I guess you can say that.” When wasn’t he camping? 

“I’ll be back later then. Don’t go anywhere, okay?” Plasmius raised an eyebrow, he had no ability to parse out the worry or anxiety written all over his face. He did wonder if he should dignify the kid’s command with a response. The boy didn’t have the Orb. He held no weight… and yet it didn’t really strike him as something he shouldn’t agree to. “I’m not going anywhere.” Those were his orders anyway.

The boy stared at him for a few moments longer and then bolted. So much for not being spooked. 

Plasmius continued his work as normal but he noticed an odd buzzing in his head as his thoughts drifted back to the boy with the blue eyes. He decided it wasn’t really a bad thing, it broke up the monotony of the work. 

Night rolled around and his fellow performers showed up. Once again he was set to deal with the public. He sat at the ticket booth, still in his human disguise. He saw the kid standing on the edge of the forest and waved him over.

He looked around and pulled his hoodie over his head, looking like he was trying very hard to hide from something as he walked over to Plasmius. 

“ _ You told me you were camping!”  _ The boy said in a harsh whisper. “ _ What is this?” _

“Circus Underground. But I think you knew that by the shifty way you came up here. You have to be at least sixteen to get in.” 

“ _ I’m nineteen you cracked walnut! And why would you drop everything to join a… circus.”  _ The boy squinted at him and leaned closer. 

Plasmius blinked and leaned away. The boy looked… scared? Did he finally clue in that Plasmius wasn’t a human? Was he going to go away now? Why did that make him feel… sad? 

He shook his head. Not the time to be thinking, he had a job to do. “Nineteen? You sure? Well then… I’m going to have to figure out how to refer to you other than kid.” Not that it would matter, they would be off to the next town tomorrow and he’d never see this… not kid… again. 

“Danny, it’s me, it’s Danny. You gotta snap out of it Vlad, come on!” 

Plasmius gave him an amused look. Was this a game? Were they playing a game? He had seen other humans play-act before. “Snap out of what Danny? Is Vlad my role?”

“Vlad? Vlad Masters? Do you know who that is?” Danny asked, a little more agitated. 

Plasmius shrugged. “Can’t say I’m familiar. Are you buying a ticket for a friend?” 

“No… no just one for me.” Danny said, his shoulders slumped. He pulled a few crumpled bills out of his pocket. “I’ll… just go get a seat.” 

“Enjoy!” Plasmius took the money and handed him a ticket. “I’m actually in the show too.” He admitted, though he wasn’t quite sure why. “But I bet you won’t be able to spot me.” His regular form was a point of pride, and it looked completely different.

“And if I do?” Danny asked with a small frown. 

“What?” Plasmius asked. 

“If I’m able to figure out where you’re at, do I get something?”

“Oh.” Danny had taken his bet as a literal thing. Humans bet money, usually. “Uh, ten dollars?”

“How about you have to buy me a snack from the cafe in town if I do?” 

“Uh… I can’t leave without…” Plasmius frowned. Shedding light on the inner workings of the circus was a big no and revealing that he took orders from a ghost artifact would put a pretty big spotlight on the heart of it all. “Boss’s orders, we have to stay close. Don’t want to deal with bad press and a bunch of performers invading a town can only end badly.”

“Boss, huh? You let someone else boss you around?” Danny challenged. 

“It’s easier that way.” Plasmius said simply. “I don’t have to make the tough calls.” He  _ couldn’t  _ make any calls without higher say so, that wasn’t allowed.

“Okay, fine. If I can pick you out then… you have to perform one of your tricks, alone.” Danny said slowly. “Is that okay?” 

It wasn’t the strangest thing he had ever been asked to do, and more importantly it didn’t break any rules. “Sure, fine. If you can pick me out then I’ll show you one of my stunts. You better go inside, it’s starting soon.” 

Danny nodded and put something into each ear. Some sort of fancy looking earbuds. Plasmius figured he must have noise issues. He could relate, the roar of the crowd made him sick sometimes.


	2. Chapter 2

The show went on as normal, or as normal as a show starring ghosts pretending to be humans could be. The music was loud, the crowd annoying, but that was all par for the course. 

Plasmius was the final act so he waited while his fellow performers came and went. He dropped his human appearance as soon as he was backstage. While he was waiting he found one of the cracked mirrors used to apply makeup and took in his ghostly appearance with a hint of pride. This form made him… happy, he supposed. Nothing like the sad tired looking human form he had to be in most of the time. 

This form had flare, it had style, it had a  _ cape, _ it was better in every way. He didn’t begrudge the Ringmaster the time he had to spend pretending to be a human, after all  _ someone  _ had to, and the Ringmaster was far too busy to deal with mundane things like manual labor and sales. He had ghosts like him for that. He told himself his utility was something to be proud of, his greatest asset. 

Or the Orb told him that.

He wasn’t sure why he felt the need to separate that out sometimes. The Orb told him that so it was true, so was there any need to clarify? He was supposed to be happy with his place here so he  _ was _ . Then… why did he need to acknowledge the difference between what he was told and what he knew? The Orb said they should be one and the same. 

Plasmius heard his cue and he disregarded the errant thoughts. After all he was needed for the finale. 

He walked out on stage, impassive as all of his cohorts. It was their orders to seem aloof while performing, it added to the mystique. 

  
  


His specialty was fire, the Ringmaster introduced him as Inferno and called his ability pyrokinesis. The audience gasped as he summoned a flame out of thin air, turning it into a fiery ring that encircled him and grew. He made the flames dance to the music, using exaggerated motions to give the illusion that the power was harder to control than it really was. He could probably do this whole routine standing completely still, but that wouldn’t lend to drama. 

  
  


He knew from practice just how much he could make the flames grow before people went from awe to panic and he danced right on that line. As the music came to its final crescendo the flames flew out towards the audience. There were screams but the fire disappeared before it could touch anyone. There was one beat of silence, and then thunderous applause. He bowed and took his leave. 

Once he was backstage again he started helping with cleanup, as they all did. There would be no encore, there never was. He went around emptying the trash cans and took them out back to where there were a few dumpsters. He had almost forgotten about Danny until he heard someone calling for… well not him but close enough.

“Vlad? Hey wait up!” Danny jogged up beside him.

“Why do you keep calling me that?” Plasmius asked as he hefted a bag of trash into the dumpster. 

“You… that’s your… you haven’t given me anything else to call you.” Danny tripped his way through his words with an unprecedented amount of awkwardness. 

“Right, I suppose I haven’t.” Plasmius made no further comment, he still couldn’t give out his real name, and his stage name would give away who he was. If Danny wanted to call him Vlad… it wasn’t a bad name. It was actually quite nice. Part of him said that Vlad was sort of… kind of like Plasmius, if you squinted. So it was okay, really. “So, any idea who I was?” He threw another bag into the dumpster.

“Well I was kind of split between the tightrope walker and the contortionist…” Danny began slowly. 

“Is that so?” Plasmius grinned to himself. 

“I’m messing with you, Vlad. You were the red eyed pyromaniac at the end. I knew the moment you walked out.”

Plasmius dropped the last bag of trash on his foot. “Butter biscuits! How the heck did you figure that out?” 

“Plasmius?” The Ringmaster was calling for him and Danny’s eyes went wide. He ducked behind the dumpster faster than Plasmius had ever seen a human move and was well out of sight before the ringmaster rounded the corner. 

“Ah, there you are Plasmius. You do not need to take down the tents tonight, we will be doing another show tomorrow.” 

“Very well.” Plasmius said, starring distractingly at the orb the man had affixed to the top of his cane. It always hummed when in view, somehow sound was connected to the visual. He wondered if that’s why Danny had put in headphones, and then mentally shook himself at the idea, how could a human hear the Orb? And why would  _ anyone _ not want to listen to it? He needed to focus on the task at hand instead of these insane hypothetical situations. “Do you need me for anything else?” 

“Yes. There is a ghost that might be in the area, Phantom. If you see him you are to report to me immediately.” The Ringmaster looked… worried? 

“Yes. Do you wish for me to find him for you?” Plasmius asked, thinking he understood.

“No! Under no circumstance should you engage with him. He is a ghost with white hair, green eyes, and a black jumpsuit. You are not to even let him  _ see  _ you, do I make myself clear?” 

That was different. But who was he to care? He nodded. “I’ll make sure to be on the lookout and let you know if anyone seems suspicious.” 

“Good. After you finish here you may have the rest of the night to yourself, so long as you stay closeby.” 

“That is very generous of you.” Plasmius replied. 

“Yes, well, carry on.” 

The ringmaster rounded the corner and Plasmius went back to his task, a little more lifeless than before. 

“Uh… Vlad?”

Plasmius blinked and looked over at the kid… no Danny. “Ah… yes can I help you?” 

“We were just talking…” Danny said with a frown.

“Right, sorry.” Plasmius shook his head. This Danny kid was suspicious. Of course, he would be suspicious if he was a ghost, but he was a human. So, he reasoned, he didn’t need to tell the Ringmaster. “Ah… er… you guessed who I was, right?” He struggled to regain that thread of thought. “It’s been a long night.” He said, having heard humans give the same excuse before. 

“Sure.” Said Danny in a way that made Plasmius think he didn’t really believe it. “How did you do that?”

“What? The fire? It’s all circus smoke and mirrors. You know.” Plasmius hefted the last trash bag into the dumpster. 

“No, he ordered you to turn me in, and you lied to his face.” Danny said like it was the most obvious thing.

“He didn’t order me to… wait you  _ heard  _ all of that?” 

“Uh… bits and pieces.” Danny admitted sheepishly.

“We were working on a new bit, that’s all.” Plasmius lied right away. He couldn’t have anyone, even someone like Danny, poking around too much. It wasn’t allowed. “Play acting, you know, like you were doing earlier? All in good fun.” 

“But you brushed him off, like it was nothing.” Danny persisted. “How…?”

“I did not.” Plasmius said defensively. “I am following orders. Or…” He shouldn’t have said it like that. “I don’t just brush people off, the Ringleader included. I acknowledge him just like anyone else. Besides…” Something was screaming at him to stop talking, was it himself? The Orb? He wasn’t sure… “Besides, according to the act, it’s only a problem if you’re dead, right?” Was he giving a warning? Why was he warning him, a human about being a ghost? It was so stupid. 

“Right.” Danny frowned up at him. “Only if I’m dead, which I’m not, right?” 

“Of course you’re not!” Plasmius said at once, feeling… guilty about it? Why did he feel guilty? “You are a human, completely mundane, just like the rest of us, so there’s nothing to worry about.” 

“Sure… So uh… you gonna show me a trick? I won the bet.” Danny said, seeming to drop the other line of thinking. Good. Plasmius let it drop too, he wasn’t doing anything wrong just by acknowledging the facts so he didn’t need to think about it anymore.

“Sure thing. I can’t do much out here.” Not without making him more suspicious. “But I can make a flame.” He waved his hands around in the showy way he had been told to in order to make the fire seem more mystical and made a small fire. After a few seconds, he put it out. “There we are!” 

“That’s crazy…” Danny said, not looking particularly impressed. Plasmius just figured he was reading emotions wrong. “Now I get to show you one.” 

“Show me a trick? Yeah, sure why not?” He’d probably pull a coin from behind his ear or something. Human magic. Plasmius figured it couldn’t hurt to humor him.

Danny pulled something out of his backpack and showed it to Plasmius. “Know what this is?”

“Uh… a soup tin?” Plasmius asked. That’s what it looked like, a high tec soup tin. In the back of his mind, alarm bells were going off. This thing was dangerous, it wasn’t allowed. But he ignored that, he couldn’t be rude by refusing to see the trick now, right? Obviously it couldn’t be that dangerous. It was fine.

“Yup. Wanna see what’s inside?” Danny asked, waving it back and forth. 

“Sure Danny.” Plasmius agreed, really what harm could looking in it do?

“Alright.” Danny said. He uncapped it and all at once Plasmius figured out the trick. 

He was the soup. 


End file.
